Actor Robert Downey Jr turns 55 on April 4. The actor, after wrapping up a phenomenally successful run as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films in 2019, starred in the big budget flop Dolittle earlier this year. But all everyone seems to be interested in knowing is whether or not he will return to the MCU in some fashion.
Downey was the captain of the Marvel films, having appeared in the very first MCU movie, Iron Man, in 2008. His character, Tony Stark, was killed off in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, with the actor saying that he was done for good. He did, however, conceded on Joe Rogan’s podcast that “there would have to be a super compelling argument and a series of events” for it to happen.
A recent report, however, suggested that due to the failure of Dolittle — the film was hurt by poor reviews and a cancelled China release because of the coronavirus pandemic — Downey is willing to return to the MCU, for a smaller salary. The actor reportedly received $75 million for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The report said that a Tony Stark cameo in Black Widow ‘is all but guaranteed’.
Downey Jr was asked about the Black Widow cameo at the premiere of Dolittle, and he neither confirmed nor denied the rumour. Instead, he said, “It’d be nice if they’d notified me… they can do anything now. This could be a deepfake interview for all we know!” Deadline reported that Downey Jr isn’t the only actor who’ll make a cameo in the film, given its prequel nature.
In an appearance on The Today Show, the actor once again failed to give a definitive answer. “I’m not sure. Are we in bargaining now? I am so pleased, just that, I wound up where I have. I’m very fortunate so, I’m not the kind of guy who — I want to try to keep it classy. We’ll see,” he said.
Other reports suggest that Downey could return as the voice of an AI assistant, like his very own Jarvis, in the upcoming Disney+ Marvel series, Iron Heart. On another occasion, actor Jeff Goldblum let slip that Downey would return as Iron Man in the upcoming series What If? “I played the part again a couple of days ago. I went to the Disney studios and I recorded the Grandmaster’s voice for an episode of a show that’s gonna be on Disney+ that’s called What If…? An animated version of all the characters we know and love from Marvel and this episode included the Grandmaster and Iron Man, so Robert Downey will do a voice for that, and Korg. Taika Waititi had already recorded his voice for that, so yeah, for a couple hours I enjoyed doing that,” Goldblum told BuzzFeed in an interview.
